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Just what the world needs… The LRH playbook for hypnotists and wanna-be cult leaders.

“Have them believe their body is only a vessel to carry them to the next, higher state of being.”
and
“Have them believe parts of the mind are inferior and need to be purged.” All this does in fact have a very familiar ring…

How true it is, that Scientology keeps the subject unwary through deception and then isolated from family and friends. Get them in. Nurture their fears. Keep them isolated. Demonize outsiders, keep enemies well-established. Block critical information. Remove support and doubt… Keep them isolated.

Do you remember this one: “You become what you resist.” (?)
I sure do.
I racked my brain, trying to make sense of it. Explain that again, Ron…? How could it be true, that by trying to resist a temptation or an evil you become it?
Of course, there is no “sense” to be had from the statement. You become what results from your intention.
No being escapes the wisdom drawn from human experience. Nothing else makes sense, except to the cult-leader who wants to keep his followers trapped! Now the world is evil, your enemy. You become what you resist. You must stay inside with our special knowledge… be only with those who “know”.

1. The leader claims to be indisputable and beats up his chosen executives anyway.

2. “Salvation” turns out to have monetary demands beyond the attainable AND keeps a horridly rigid schedule that includes sleep-deprivation.

3. Nobody you knew before knows where you sleep, or how to contact you, and everybody you see and talk to every day is a cult member.

4. Everybody believes doctors are enemies, scientists are frauds, and that social scientists are particularly useless. Wait, that might not be a cult, you must be a scientologist.

5. You may be in a cult if Google-ling gets you in trouble with the boss. If you think the Leader knows everything worthwhile already, congradulations, you have made your leader very happy and all doubt has been removed… you are in a cult.

Well, that’s enough for me already. What next. Find the key to contentment. Help others. Give without expectation. Find three things to be grateful for everyday. Daily affirmations. Explore possibilities. Forget faults for an entire day. Let something go. Kiss a girl, I mean an attractive other person. Or just work on possibilities, something that makes some one else’s life a little better. Recall a laugh. Recall someone else’s laughter. Positive psychology, man. Risky business, huh? Thank god for failure, I say. No reason to give up, much as that feeling comes around. I’m getting out. Look, I’m learning. HEY, I’m out already. Thank you thank you triple gratitude, thank you. What is great is not being angry any more, thank you.

It’s a good very very basic video. Margaret Singer, Robert Jay Lifton, Daniel Shaw and Jon Atack have in depth ones. Unfortunately to really understand the effects Scientology creates takes a serious effort to study several subjects. Hubbard used thousands of hours of indoctrination to control people. It’s worth dozens and hundreds to escape it.

simplicity is a beautiful thing…
All it takes is a single thought… to send the mind in a new direction.

Yes, encouragement and nice truck-load of nutritional, critical thought would be in order…
to convert the hardened scientologist back to a properly oriented self-identified person.

True, the cult is all about indoctrination thru disorientation and isolation.

But hours of hammering the point? Yeah, Hubbard-tology has a lot of details, years of work, all supporting and strengthening itself. All the same mass, intellectual blob.

A particle of truth can blast a creed into oblivion, once recognized.

No wonder there is no humor inside the Church of Scn-gy. There is another valuable lesson, to not take yourself too seriously. Your job, sure, but…
You may be wrong, about everything, and wind up lost to humanity. You might end up out of your mind, too, just like the real way Hubbard died. You might wind up sending out messages like the speech David Miscavige made, on that fateful day…

My point here is that everybody has to figure this out by their own wits, themselves. We can offer what we know, guidance and support, maybe how to know when you are being conned, but… do we really need to point out the myriad of details, the endless list of ways to conjure up a devoted servant? Yeah, that’s complicated… and as necessary as telling a freight train which way to go… beyond pointing a finger.

Here’s my simple approach to talking about this cult.
Assume everything about scientology is entirely sinister and wrong. You would be mostly right in that assumption, but…you can write a thesis on the exceptions, if you feel a need. That project is done.
Now what to do about the guys and gals still unwittingly trapped?
Well, here is a nice video, to get the ball rolling. Might carry you all the way out the door, and…

Well, I do wish there were a train, to pick you up at the gate and carry you away, to go where you want to and not feel bad about anything. I wish I had directions to the How To Be Human Center, or if I could be standing there to say, hey, it is not as bad as it looks out here… You are not alone. Your mind is obviously strong or you wouldn’t be standing here, on the outside of that blue monster. Be glad. Freedom finds you at last. Look at what you can do. There is, after all, a lot to be grateful for…

Hi r, Thank you and this space has been family for me for quite sometime now.I am definitely ancient enough to be called Auntie does not bother me at all.Goodness all the Honey do this and that I got in SO when all that was wanted and needed by me was that I disappear according to the GO/I.Long ago now,but I still recall more of it all.Takes years to flush the Ron Aid out.So good to find you here.XO

Yeah, but show me a cult where you can have epic wins and stable case gain while you’re saving mankind from an eternity of diminishing abilities. Scientology is a very special and auspicious opportunity and challenge which only the fewest of the few can recognize for what it is. A battle for the soul of Man is being fought this very minute and so on and blah blah whatever.

My view, not from a well-researched academic background but just what I have observed:

There is a human problem, but it is not just with being human. Being human is very successful adaptation, one that has pretty much become the dominant species in a very short time. Only 40,000 years or so, an eye-blink in geologic time.

According to Edmund O Wilson humans are not only social animals, but eusocial. Like the ants and the bees. “Eusocial” is not an example of an auto-correct gone bad, try a little Google on it if you don’t know what I mean so I can get this said in less than twenty paragraphs. There is a great little PBS documentary on E O Wilson too. http://www.pbs.org/program/eo-wilson/

Understood, some people don’t like E O Wilson’s ideas, but try this on for size: the human race is so successful because people can act in the interest of others, not just of themselves. It is a great sacrifice to raise a child, for example, but people want to do it. They love and want to help their children even if the project got started as a fun time in the back seat of ’57 Chevy.

There is an actual area of the brain that helps us feel the emotions of others. As Jesus said: “Greater love hath no man than that he give up his life for another” (John 15:13). With this special part of the brain we feel not only that we are part of our family or close group of friends, but also part of all mankind. From this principle of empathy all the complex social interactions of a whole world full of humans somehow works together.

Language helps with this, and the socialization of children. No other animal takes 30 years to grow up. Horses can walk almost immediately after birth, and sea turtles head for the ocean as soon as they hatch. But humans seem to need a lot more education to really get involved.

Of course, some never grow up. Some seem to be missing the part of the brain that helps them feel the pain of another. This is the big flaw in the system, not that it is a flaw in humanity but a flaw in a part of humanity.

These inhuman humans (yes I am thinking of a certain Dave we all know) rapidly observe that others can be manipulated by emotional appeals, by lies, by complex systems of belief, by all the tricks in today’s video. They don’t feel any pain when they hurt another. But they see they can control others using pretended pain. Or by conjuring up the specter of the suffering of all of humanity in their victims’ imaginations.

These manipulators think it is really funny to watch normal humans twist themselves into pretzels to try to make sense out of a faked belief system. To put their lives, their money, their relationships on the line to follow some pied piper who pretends to be able to do great things for all humanity.

The manipulators and cult leaders use the empathy and eusocial instincts of ordinary humans to enrich and aggrandize themselves. They think they are better than the rest of us, and in the short run it seems so. They are using a trick that plays on the very heart of what makes us human, the part that makes a man take up arms in defense of freedom or makes a mother run in front of a truck to save her child.

Ah, how the leaders laugh and amuse themselves thinking about us poor dupes and how we gave up every penny so they could wear fancy clothes and jet around the world telling lies and eating the best food. They cannot know that they have torn out their own hearts to make it possible, that they have sold their own souls for a mess of pottage.

They will never know the simple pleasure of helping someone just because they needed some help, or smiling in pure joy at the success of another.

There’s somethin’ busted inside.

You could almost feel sorry for them if it were not for all the human wreckage they leave in their wake.

I enjoyed your reply. Thank you, but human wreckage is never a consequence a leader really considers in actuality. So quickly humanity is justified in its sacrifice, for what? Wars… don’t think so. Brutality never needs explanation, only justification. Hubbard had a legitimate argument, his application we suffer from – imo auditing has some merit except profit was employed in its wake.
When we we ever wake up?

Great response. And spot on. But I have to admit I do feel some compassion for Dave, knowing that he is best stopped. Ad as we have seen, the victims remain victims until one day, something inside them says, “No!” And that is the point at which they begin their journey out. For some it may take decades. Others not nearly so long. As for Dave, consider spending not one day, but all the rest of your life without a single friend who cares for you, a single person you can actually trust, a single day of feeling safe from others? That, to me, is HELL on earth and Dave sits squarely in it. I would not wish to live such a life for all the billions in the world.

Tons of parallels to Scientology. Specialized knowledge, control of behavior, use of guilt and confession, infallible doctrine and leader, us against them mentality. The good of the group outweighs the individual. Get away from family members or anyone critical of the movement etc – Come to think about it about the only things it does not have is the chanting or physical violence (as a general rule).

It was not until I looked at Steve Hassan’s Combatting Cult Mind Control that my Scientology experience was brought into a sharp understanding. I was dumfounded that Scientology uses pretty much every technique of undue influence, just textbook. Some of the wording is a little different (ie Scientology uses Disconnection instead of Shunning, wog instead of sinner or unenlightened, lots of ARC instead of love bombing, portraying thinking as bad instead of thought stopping, reactive mind or psych instead of devil etc. etc.).

It’s hard for me to imagine now that Ron could have come up with this without an understanding of cult group behavior and undue influence.

Hi Don-M, Good to meet you.I like your comment particularly the last line about Ron.The old scammer did know quite a thing or two about hypnosis and control of those who were love bombed and fell under the influence as I did.The Sea Org was the ultimate con because we were slaves to him and now dm.This video has many parallels to Scientology.Always,Ann B.

Cults are way worse than this video can depict. Cults can be defined but not depicted very well. Good people who have never been in a cult might watch this video and think, “That is so weird. That could never happened to me.”

Yes, but when you ARE in one and someone shows this to you, it must have some impact. It may at first be rejected by said person, remember he’s still mind controlled. However, he’ll see the truth of it through the cracks, the cognizant dissonance, that he’s already observed. He’ll recognise the processes when he goes back to it, the cult. It will begin to resonate. That’s what you want…

It is a valuable tool, IMO. I have someone to rescue and will most certainly use it.

Regarding your question of will I do some stand up at my place when we have the party. I posted my answer on yesterday post. You might want to take a look at it. Or, I guess I can re-post it.

Will I do stand up? Does a rocking horse have a hickory dick? Does a raggedy Ann have cotton tits?

My wife and I were up on the central coast a few years back, wine tasting. We went to a winery called JanChris (named after the two daughters). After a couple of tastes, I launched into my Schtick. I did about 45 minutes. Everyone was rolling on the floor. I always include the audience in my shows.

We were about to leave, and the owners said if we left, the other people will leave too! Can’t let that happen, so I did another 30 minutes. Of course, for me, the wine was free, which is a bit dangerous for those who know how much I love great red wine!

You know, I was at a country-western bar awhile back. I sat at a table next another table that a large girl was dancing on. I looked up at her and said, “Nice legs!.”

She looked down at me, smiling, and said, “Do you really think so?”

I replied, “Hell yes! That table should have collapsed a long time ago!”

As you say Dude – “you go girl!’
I’ll be there with my own brand of drunken philosophy and all that it entails from a lifetime of pursuit in the fine art of appreciating the never ending practice of bettering oneself with over indulgence.

I knew Rex Fowler.
One day, on course, he came back after lunch, and had a big wide Band aid on his forehead. He had been out for a walk, (locational) and had run straight on into a stop sign while walking. He was OT 7.
About the murder, the strange thing is, I could never find anything about a motive, or anything, period. Apparently, he never said a word about why he did it. He is currently serving life in prison for Murder One.

Rex Fowler hey? Now there’s a name that incites some horrid dark thoughts. I cannot begin to contemplate what he thinks when he sits in his cell and dwells on Scientology. Perhaps if he wrote a short story about his involvement in the cult it might bring about some closure. He is the extreme example of what a lack of ability can do mixed with the crap he paid so dearly for under the deception he was going free. Geezers… how did work out for ya Rex?

I thought that Rex Fowler killed his partner and then shot himself. No? He’s in prison? Haha, maybe criminon can help him. Maybe I can write to him to tell him there is hope through scientology. Who was the c/s on his case…a perfect golden age of tech c/s? Hmm, I thought Flag was the mecca (I was there and Knew that wasn’t true). How do they explain that one. Anyone (journalist) ask the church about it. I would love to hear their answer!

There is no such thing as a bad child, or a child that just turns out bad.

Amongst all the bullshit, one of the things Hubbard got right was:

Axiom 138 : Aberration is the degree of residual plus or minus randomity accumulated by compelling, inhibiting, or unwarranted assisting of efforts on the part of other organisms or the (material) universe.

Aberration is caused by what is done to the individual, (or not done to him) not what the individual does, plus his self determination about what has been done to him.

Oh, the J & Ding we could take part in. Reminds me of another ridiculous moment in Clampire history. De-Dinging. How hypnotized was I that I didn’t come up for air and reality after that heavy bit of cognitive dissonance?
I really liked this film, simple, succinct and really useful.

I always thought that the training movies were amateurish – overacted, over dramatised, over stated, the people badly dressed. I never said so to anyone, of course. That would have been instant removal from the course room!

Mike, thanks for posting this. The production value is part of the beauty of this film. It was produced about 10 years ago. It was made to look as though it was shot in the 70s.
Carey Burtt covered all cults. It appears he used Scn as a benchmark along with many of the more well known cults. Moonies, LDS, born again Christians, etc.
He was clear and concise. Nothing to argue about here. If you watch this and have any doubts about the toxicity of Scientology you need help. Well worth watching and passing on to non-Scientology family members and friends.

Wow, impressive and, yes, it does fit perfectly with Scientology and even ISIS recent destructive group. You have also Hitler types that have gone through these ‘steps’ and created a cult of obedience.

One characteristic is the evil aspect of it all. It leads to destruction, isolation, abandoned personal principles and cut of family and friends ties.

Also it represents what LRH created and this leads us to his dichotomies, meaning, LRH may have expressed soma valid ideas and philosophical statements, but on the other hand he also used many of the video described ideas to create a cult.

And miscavige, with his greed and lack of care for others, fit perfectly in the ‘booths in the sky’ to make matters worse.

This is a worth watching video, it practically summarized it quite well.

Of course lrh used standard cult tech.Of course today’s scientology is on par with North Korea.However in the late seventies there was a lot of attention on self devellopment.It was fun.I studied LRH stuff primarily for his theories(which dont work but were charming and at least audacious=.Also to defend lrh he was never lazy working on the ship 8 hours tech 8 hours adnin.Of course he was more brash than smart.
This clip reflects the Sea Org especially with LRH post 1965.It does not reflect the mission network.

OldTimer, you’re spot on. Late 60s and early 70s, even in the orgs, were a lot of fun and personal progress. The SO “overlay” was the real beginning of the end, long though it took. I can specifically recall SO missions to the orgs and the org staff thinking them quite crazy and destructive.

I find it hard not to see a little of every group I’ve ever been associated with in that flick.
Scientology just polished it all up, put it in checksheet format and charged a fortune for it.
It’s amazing the crap we suck up. Aw well… got to have a hobby I suppose.
I wonder what new wave of idiotism is fermenting on the sidelines after Scientology evaporates?

Exactly! The production quality of that hilariously filmed skit was made purposefully cheesy to reflect the equally cheesy tactics, literature and rhetoric of every cult that I’m familiar with! Just as Soviet ‘art’ directly exemplified the impoverished creativity of that ideology, so to does cheesiness lie at the core of what defines a cult to begin with 😉

It had just enough direct $cn allusions to be unmistakable to the initiated, but was still general enough to serve as a comic mockery of them all…loved it!

Important Quotes

If the org slumps during this transition period, don't engage in "fund raising"
or "selling postcards" or borrowing money. Just make more income with Scientology.
L Ron Hubbard From HCOPL URGENT ORG PROGRAMMING

"We own a tremendous amount of property. We own a tremendous amount of material and so forth, and it keeps growing.
But that’s not important. When buildings get important to us, for God sakes, some of you born revolutionists will you please blow up central headquarters".
L Ron Hubbard Lecture 31 Dec 1960

"Personal integrity is knowing what you know. What you know is what you know and to have the courage to know and say what you have observed".- LRH from Personal Integrity

"It is necessary to happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists of professing to believe what he does not believe." Thomas Paine

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” - Martin Luther King

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” - Martin Luther King

“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

“Communication is the universal solvent” - L Ron Hubbard

“When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.” Thomas Paine

"Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world would do this, it would change the earth." William Faulkner

"The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual's own reason and critical analysis." Dalai Lama